Essays on Gates of Fire

In Steven Pressfield's timeless epic, "Gates of Fire," the narrative unfolds through the eyes of Xeones, a Spartan helot who recounts the tale of Sparta and its legendary stand at the Battle of Thermopylae to a scribe of Xerxes, the Persian Emperor. This saga revolves around 300 valiant Spartan soldiers, led by Leonidas, who, alongside a few thousand allies, fought unwaveringly to secure freedom from the overwhelming Persian Empire. The Spartan Society: Birth to Adulthood The Spartans, despite their pursuit…

Gates of Fire is written by Steven Pressfield, a graduate from Duke University. The author joined the United States Marine Core as a rifleman until 1971. The author is able to incorporate a relation to how the Spartans train to go to war. In Pressfield’s book he writes about the battle of Thermopylae, and about a fictional character named Xeones who helps shape the novel. Throughout the book Xeones shares personal experiences in the world around him, and how the…

Gates of Fire is a historically fictional description through the eyes of a man named Xeones that led him to be a squire in the battle of Thermopalye. He was one of three Greeks that survived the battle at the Hot Gates against the Persian army. The accounts were recorded by Xerxes' historian, Gobartes, while Xeones himself retold his tale. Eventually befriending Orontes, Captain of the Immortals, and the historian Gobartes, Xeones died of his injuries, and his remains were…

Why I chose this book: I have no particular reason why I chose this book. While searching through the commandant’s new reading list, the title of the book stood out to me. It did not seam like a boring documentary or and endless biography that goes on and on but rather an interesting read that would keep me interested. When I went to go check it out from training I read the summary on the back of the book and…